The Hermitage Artist Retreat surprised me this August by inviting me to become a Hermitage Fellow for the 2022-2024 cycle. With no application process, a national curatorial council awards Hermitage Fellows residency time at the historic Hermitage Artist Retreat in the Florida Keys. There, artists from diverse disciplines rest, reflect, create, and share their art […]
A Teaching Artist Nightmare
Do you dream about your work? A colleague of my father’s once invoiced an employer to compensate his sleeping hours. (Purportedly, he had solved a problem in a dream.) Because chemical engineers are expected to sleep on their own time, his request was denied. Billing for dreams may sound ludicrous and pretentious, but I get […]
Reaching Out with the USCG Band
Thankfully, the U.S. government is back in business, and I mean that from the bottom of my pocketbook. A week ago, the shutdown threatened to cancel today’s workshop with the wonderful musicians of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). For the past two years, I have coached USCG ensembles on audience engagement skills. From a purely […]